The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) today called on people to “report with dispatch any sightings of or information about” Gen. Jovito Palparan to any unit of the NPA. The CPP said last Friday that its central organs have authorized all units of the NPA, including its people’s militias, to take General Palparan into custody and surrender him to the duly-constituted revolutionary authorities.

“The NPA, the people’s militias and revolutionary mass organizations should closely look into reports of Palparan’s presence in their areas of responsibility and take immediate action,” said the CPP.

The CPP lambasted the Aquino regime for its failure to arrest General Palparan who was ordered arrested by the Malolos Regional Trial Court last December. General Palparan was earlier charged with the kidnapping, illegal detention and torture of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño who were abducted with peasant activist Manuel Merino by armed soldiers in Hagonoy, Bulacan in 2005.

“It is a matter of obligation to the Filipino people and state responsibility that the people’s democratic government undertake the necessary measures to put General Palparan under its duly authorized judicial organs,” the CPP said. According to the CPP, a people’s court can be immediately convened to try and render judgment on General Palparan for war crimes and gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

It added: “As a representative of the democratic interests of the Filipino people, the people’s democratic government is capable and determined to attain justice for all the victims of war crimes and gross violations of human rights committed by General Palparan and his ilk.”